Series 2 - Robert DeNiro

Episode 12
It's Robert De Niro.
Episode no.	12
Original airdate	19 October 2006
Written by	Ricky Gervais Stephen Merchant
Directed by	Ricky Gervais Stephen Merchant
Guest stars	Robert De Niro Robert Lindsay Jonathan Ross

The sixth episode of the second series of Extras.

Plot

Andy and Maggie.

Andy makes his first chat show appearance with Jonathan Ross. In the green room he meets a woman with an ill son, Joe, and he gets stuck agreeing to visit him in the hospital. Fellow guest Robert Lindsay notices what happens and is offended that he wasn’t asked to visit the kid. Andy also talks to Jonathan Ross in the green room and they strike up a friendship. After Ross told Andy that Robert De Niro would be in town shooting a film, he tries to get Darren to set up a meeting. Unfortunately Darren is unable to figure out the time zones making Andy so upset he tells Darren that unless he can get him a meeting with Robert De Niro before he gets it himself, he’s fired. With Andy’s new celebrity friends, he’s neglecting his friendship with Maggie. The only time he’ll make for her is when he goes to the hospital to visit Joe. Andy goes in for another chat with Darren to find out about the De Niro meeting and he catches him masturbating to a pen. He nearly fires him, but changes his mind when Darren tells him about a meeting he set up with De Niro. Unfortunately, the meeting is scheduled for the same time that he normally meets Maggie at the hospital. When Andy tells Maggie she lets him know she’s disappointed and she goes to see Joe on her own. Later Andy receives a text message from Maggie saying that she is sorry for not being supportive and wishes him luck at the meeting. Andy decides to skip the meeting and go to the hospital instead and Maggie lets him know he made the wrong decision. Yet Darren calls Andy and they agree to meet De Niro for drinks later and Maggie gets to come along.

Quotes

• Darren: It took me 2 days to realise they’re 8 hours ahead.
  Andy: They’re behind.
  Darren: Oh are they? That explains quite a lot. So what time will it be over there now?
  Andy: Right, it’s 4 o’ clock here so 8 hours.
  Darren: 5, 6…
  Andy: No you’re going up.
  Darren: 5, 6…
  Andy: You’re still going up!
  Darren: No that’s down, look.
  Andy: Look it’s 4 o’ clock here, so 8 hours, 8 o’ clock.
  Darren: That’s 4 hours ahead.
  Andy: In the morning!

Caught wanking to a pen.

• Joe: Why do you have a friend who’s a girl? Boring.
  Andy: They’re usually boring, but because she’s so stupid that amuses me.
  Maggie: I’m not stupid.
  Andy: She’s very dim.
  Maggie: That looks like one of those things you get a goldfish in at the fair. Could you keep a goldfish in that?
  Andy: See.
• Lindsay: Your kid does not know comedy. Sort it out, now. Citizen Smith, biggest sitcom of the 70’s, come on.
  Joe: I wasn’t born til 1993.
  Lindsay: I wasn’t born til 1949 but I know who Queen Victoria is. For God’s sake, is something wrong with your brain?
• Barry: Have you got my pen.
  Darren: Yes take your pen, please.
  Barry: Were you having a wank?
  Darren: I was trying to have a quick one, yes, but it’s like bloody Piccadilly Circus in here.
• Maggie: What would you rather do, right?
  Andy: Ugh.
  Maggie: No, listen. Would you rather die a sad, lonely, bitter, old man in a cold and empty flat? Or, if we’re not with anyone in about 5 years time just move in together?
  Andy: I know what you’ve tried to do there. You tried to make the first option sound the worst. Why is it a cold flat?
  Maggie: Because you’re too fat to get up and put the heating on.

Cultural References

• My Family: a British sitcom that has been on BBC One since 2000. Created by American, Fred Barron, the series is about the fictional Harper family, and stars Robert Lindsay and Zoë Wanamaker as Ben and Susan Harper, a middle-class couple who live in Chiswick, West London.
• Citizen Smith: a British television sitcom starring Robert Lindsay as "Wolfie" Smith, a young Marxist urban revolutionary living in Tooting, South London, who is attempting to emulate his hero Che Guevara. Wolfie is the self-proclaimed leader of the Tooting Popular Front (in reality a small bunch of his friends) the goals of which are "Power to the People" and "Freedom for Tooting". In reality, he is an unemployed dreamer and petty criminal whose plans fall through due to laziness and disorganisation.
• G.B.H.: a seven-part British television drama written by Alan Bleasdale, made by independent production company G.B.H (Films) and shown in the summer of 1991 on Channel 4, and repeated in July-August 2006 on More4. The central characters were Michael Murray (played by Robert Lindsay), the Militant Labour leader of an unnamed City Council in the north of England, and Jim Nelson (played by Michael Palin), the headmaster of a school for disturbed children.

Trivia

• The scene where Darren is caught masturbating to a pen was inspired by a conversation between Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant from an Xfm show on 10 May 2003.
• This episode is the only time Robert De Niro has acted for television in his 40+ year career.

Gallery

• 

  Andy on Jonathan Ross.

• 

  Andy's new best mate.

• 

  More from the pen.

• 

  What are you, a critic?

• For more images go to: Gallery:Extras - Series 2 Episode 6

External links

• HBO episode guide: "Robert De Niro"